Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1887-09-01
WoMAN's OPPORTUNITY,
Discourse by Rev. D.. Talmage at the
Hamptons.

God Made Man and Woman for n Specific
Work and to Move in Particular Spheres
Woman Suhragists Unfit to Vote or to
Keep House.
THE HAsIPToSs, Aug. 2s-aWoman's
Opportunity" was the subject of discourse
by the Rev. Il. De Witt Talmage, D. D.,
to-day; and his text: $50 God created man
IN His own image, the image of God created
lie him; male and female crented He them" 4"
Genesisi i, n. Following is the sermon in
full:
In other words God, who can make no
mistake, made man and woman for spe-
citic work and to move in particular spheres
Imam to be regnant in his realm, woman
to be dominant in hers. The boundary
line between Italy and Switzerland, be-
tween England and Scotland, is not more
thoroughly marked than this distinction
between the empire masculine and the
empire feminine. SO entirely dissimilar
are the fields 10 which God called them
that you can no moro compare them than
you Gun oxygen and nitrogen, water and
grass, trees and stars. All this talk about
the superiority of one sex 10 the other sex
is an everlasting waste of ink and speech.
A Jeweler may have scale SO delicate that
he can weigh the dust of diamonds; but
where are the scales SO delicate that you
can weigh in them affection againrt aifec-
tion, sentiment against sentiment, thought
against thought, soul against soul, a mans
world against n womnn's world? You come
out with your stereotyped remark, the man
is superior to woman in intellect, and then
| open on my desk the swarthy, IRON typed,
thunderbolted writings of Harriet Mar
tineau, and Elizabeth Browning, and
George Eliot. You come on with your
stereotyped remark about woman's su-
periority TO man in the item Of affection;
but ask you where was there moro ca
pacity to love than in JOHN the disciple,
and Rober tA1cCheyne, the Scotchman. and
John Summertield the Methodist, and
Henry Martin the missionary? The heart
OF those men was so large, that after you
had rolled into it two hemispheres there
was room still left to marshal the hosts of
Heaven and set up the throne of the
eternal Jehovah. / deny to man the
throne intellectual. l deny to woman the
will ever define the spheres, while there is
an intuition by which we know when o
man is in his realm, and when woman is
in her realm, and when either of them is
out of it. No bungling legislature ought
to attempt to make q definition or to say:
This is the line and that is the line" My
theory is that if n woman wants to vote she
ought to vote, and that If man wants TO
| embroider and keep house he ought to be
allowed to embroider and keep house.
There are masculine women and there are
etfeminate men. My theory is that you
have no right to interfere with any ones
doing anything that is righteous. Albany
and Washington might as we'll decree by
legislation how high brown thrasher
should fly, or how deep trout should
plunge, rs to try to seek out the hight OF
the depth Of woman's duty. The ques-
ton of capacity will settle finally the whole
question, the whole subject. When wo-
man is prepared to preach she will preach,
and neither conference nor presbytery can
hinder her. When q woman is prepared
to move in highest commercial spheres she
will have great influence on the exchange,
and no boards of trade can hinder her.
want woman to understand that heart and
brain can overly any barrier that politi-
| clans my set up, any that nothing can keeE
her back or keep her down but the ques.
tion of incapacity.
There nre women, know, of most unde.
sirable nature, who wander up and down
the country-havingn homes of their own
| or forsaking their own DEMONSTRATING
about their rights; and we know very well
that they themselves nre fit neither to vote
nor fit to keep house. Their mission
seems to be to humiliate the two sexes al
the thought of what any one of us might
become. No one would want to live under
the laws that such women would enact, OIL
to have cast upon society the children that
such women would raise. But shall show
woman can own, she already has in hel
possession; that her position in This
country at this time is not one OF com.
miseration, but one of congratulation; that
the grandeur and power of her realm have
never yet been appreciated; that she sits
to-day on n throne SO high, that all The
thrones of earth piled on top of each othel
would not make for her footstool. Here
is the platform on which she stands. Away
down below it are the ballot-box and tht
congressional assemblage and the legisla.
tive hall. Woman always has voted ant
always will vote. Our great grandfather!
Washington into the Presidential chair
No. His mother, by the principles sht
taught him, and by the habits she incul.
Gated, made him President. 1t was
Christian mothers hand dropping tn,
ballot when Lord Bacon wrote, and Newto1
philosophical, and Alfred the Great gov
erned, and Jonathan Edwards Numbered O
Judgment to come. How many men ther,
have been in high political station, whit
would have been insufficient to stand th'
test to which their moral principle was put
had it not been for wife's voice that en-
couraged them to do right, and Wife
prayer that sounded louder than til,
clamor of partisanship! Why, my friends
the right of suffrage, as we men exercise
it, seems to be a feeble thing. You,
Christian man, come up to the ballot DO,
and drop your vote. Right after you come
libertine, or sot-the otfscouring of th
street-and he drops his vote; and his vot
counteracts yours. But if in the quiet o
home life daughter by her Christian
demeanor, wife by her industry, mothe
by her faithfulness, casts vote in thu
right direction, then nothing can resist il
and the influence of that vote will throl
through the eternities.
My chief anxiety then is, not that wo
man have other rights accorded her; bu
that she, by the grace of God, rise up t
The appreciation of the glorious rights sh
already possesses. This morning l shal
only have time to speak of one grand an
all-absorbing right that every woman has
and that is to make home happy. Tha
realm no one has ever disputed with her
Men rlny come home at noon or at night
and they tarry comparatively little while
but she, all day long, governs it, beautife
it, sanctifies it. 1t is within her power t
make it the most attractive place on earth
1t is the only calm harbor in this world
You know as well as l do, that this outsid
world and the business world is Ion
scene Of jostle and contention. The MAJ
who has dollar struggles to keep it; til
man who has it not struggles to get il
Prices up. Prices down. Losses. Gains
Misrepresentation. Gougings Under
selling. Buyers depreciating; salesme
exaggerating. Tenants seeking less rent
landlords demanding more. Gold fidgety
Struggles about office. Men who are i
trying to keep in; men out trying to get il
Slips. Tumbles. Defalcations. Panic:
Catastrophes. O woman! thank God 70
have home, and that you may be quee
in it. Better be there than wear Victoria
coronet. Better be there than carry tn
purse of princess. Your abode may b
humble, but you can, by your faith in Go
, and your cbeerfulness of demeanor, gild
with splendors such as mn upholterer